My Budgy is vicious!!

Question
I was just asking for your help because i have a bit of a problem.  I've had my budgey about 6 months and have been trying to train it ever since, i've been patient, have done it regularly and have done it slowly and surely but nothing has happened. All that has happened is my budgey has started to peck me more and more. Most days she draws blood from my hand. I was prepared for biting but i didn't expect anything like this, i'm almost scared to go near it. If there is anything you could suggest it would be most helpfull, its got a blue beak (i think that means its a girl) is probably about 9 months old and i bought her not hand bred. Please help!!

Answer
Hi, Dougall,

Your bird is not tame if it was not handfed, and it is afraid of you for this reason and probably more.  I would have to have more details about your taming methods in order to help you with this.  If your bird is getting worse, you aren't doing something right!  

Budgies don't have colored beaks.  I think you mean your bird has a blue cere...the colored area above the beak.  A blue cere means your bird is male, not female.  Females have brown/tan/beige/white ceres.

If you are grabbing/picking your bird up to bring it out of its cage, stop!  Allow your bird to come out of its cage on its own, then go from there.  When you put your hand inside the cage to grab your bird, you are cornering and scaring it, since it is not tame.  Your bird's cage is the only place in the world the bird has as its own, and you need to respect this place of security for your bird.  

Are the bird's flight feathers clipped?  If not, I recommend you have this done.  Clipping flight feathers doesn't render the bird flightless, it is not cruel, and doesn't hurt the bird at all.  If done properly, it keeps the bird from gaining altitude when it does fly, allowing you to have more control over your bird.

You need to take the bird away from its cage into a neutral room when you try working with it.  If your bird can see/get to its cage during taming, it will not focus on what you want it to do.  

Are you rewarding your bird when your bird does what you ask?  If not, you must do this.  Reward positive behavior, do not reward negative behavior.  

Get over your fear of your bird!  Your bird can sense this and reacts accordingly.  I know it hurts to get biten, but if you own a bird, you are going to get biten from time to time.  If you are getting biten a lot, there's something you are doing wrong here, as you have to be close to/holding the bird in order to get biten.  This is why I've asked for the method you are using to tame your bird.  You have to allow your bird to become used to you, and overcome its fear of you before you will get anywhere with your bird.  Your goal with your bird is to build trust.  A trusting bird will not behave like you describe and will trust you in just about anything you want to do with your bird.  Therefore, your bird doesn't trust you at this point.  

Here is my website that contains general information for taming/training birds (taming and training are different):  www.angelfire.com/falcon/birdinfo/index.html.
www.birdchannel.com is also a good website.  

Be sure your bird is on a healthy, nutritious diet, its housing and light is adequate/proper, etc., to ensure their are no health problems that prevent your bird from behaving normally.  Most important is that you reward positive behavior and not negative behavior.  A lot of people give their birds mixed signals which confuses the bird.  You have to know what you are doing before you can expect your bird to respond the way you want your bird to respond.  

Chrys